therwise we all agree that men and women alike have the right which has
just been stated in terms that are a paraphrase of Herbert Spencer's
definition of liberty. Men's rights and women's rights are the rights to
"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." If any one disputes the
application of this principle to women as unreservedly as to men, I will
not argue with him. I write for decent people.

At this stage in the development of civilization, our business is to
see, first, that our social proceedings and reconstructions of
enterprises are compatible with the nature of the human individual, male
and female. It is always necessary for us to be reminded of the facts of
the individual, for in the last resort they will determine the failure
or the success of all our schemes. And then we must see where our
existing social structure fails to satisfy the needs of individual
development and of individual duty. In seeking to rectify what may here
be wrong, of course we must take first things first--we must set the
case right for the most important people before we go on to the others.

Now it is the simple, obvious truth,--so obvious and unchallengeable
that somehow it has never been stated--that in any human society the
parents are the most important people. The division is not between
education and the lack of it, or wealth and the lack of it, or breeding
and the lack of it. It is not the aristocracy that matters supremely;
nor the "great middle-class"; nor the masses; nor the teachers; nor the
doctors; nor the servants of modern industrialism. The classification is
a biological one--into parents and non-parents. The non-parents may be
invaluable in their way, if only they beget something that is valuable.
Heaven forbid that I should undervalue the children of the mind. But if
we are to classify any nation, the first and last classification of any
moment is none of those in which we always indulge and which all our
customs and traditions and prejudices are ever seeking to perpetuate;
but the classification into those who will die childless and those who
create the future race. That is why, for me at any rate, the subject of
women's rights is jejune and sterile compared with the subject of this
chapter. First let us ascertain the rights of mothers and grant them, to
the very uttermost; then let us do the same for the fathers. Let us
exact of each the corresponding duties; and the next generation, brought
into being under